John Giles in the League of Ireland

In the latest extratime.ie advent calendar podcast, we looked back on the John Giles era in the League of Ireland.

His tenure as manager at Shamrock Rovers started with high expectations, and the club’s first FAI Cup win for nine years but the verdict of our panel on his five year spell at Milltown is that it was a failure.

It was one of Ireland’s greatest ever Football Men taking on the role of player manager of Shamrock Rovers while simultaneously working as Republic of Ireland player manager. What could go wrong?

On the podcast our panel talked about Giles’ over-ambitious plan – speaking about creating a team capable of winning a European trophy - and why it was doomed from the get go. The style of play, the begrudgery from elsewhere in the league and the double-jobbing hindered Giles’ results at Rovers.

The one major trophy that the Hoops won during the Giles managerial reign was the 1978 FAI Cup final against Sligo Rovers. Steve Lynex earned the penalty that Ray Treacy converted for the only goal of the game.

Lynex had been released from West Brom when Giles was manager there. He took up an offer to play in Sligo and after a decent pre-season looked set to sign for Sligo Rovers.

As Sean Ryan recalled in his book ‘The official book of the FAI Cup’ though the Englishman was confronted one day by someone with a revolver saying ‘we don’t like your kind around here’ and Lynex didn’t hang around Sligo for much longer. 

Giles convinced him to come to Milltown and he was instrumental in winning the cup for the Hoops – as was referee John Carpenter according to many at Sligo Rovers. The ref kept the play going in the first half for three minutes of injury time and when Lynex went over in the box Carpenter pointed to the spot. 

The BitO'Red manager Billy Sinclair described the penalty decision as “diabolical” in the Evening Herald. “The referee decided that game,” said Sinclair. “I cannot comprehend how he had cause to play those extra minutes.

Carpenter speaking after the game defended the additional time by saying it was due to time wasting. However the criticism he received the following day saw the referee end up defending his name in court.

That verbal assault came in the confines of Sligo County Council’s chamber when Councillor Anthony McLaughlin spoke about the BitO’Red cup defeat to the Hoops.



“Sligo have been victimised from the very start of the cup because all their games were away from home” and “it’s a blatant disgrace” he said in relation to the penalty award.

The Irish Press reported on the court case that followed those comments where Carpenter claimed in court “I was called a robber and a Judas” and that some people refer to him as a “f------ robber”. The judge awarded him “nominal damages” of £25 plus £251 costs.

Giles stood down as international manager in March 1980, with the 1980/81 season his last as a player at Rovers. He took over the managerial reigns at the Vancouver Whitecaps while he was still in charge at Milltown but resigned his role at Rovers in early 1983. Rovers would win the league for the following four seasons after his depature.

You can listen to Declan Marron, Dave Donnelly and Macdara Ferris discuss the Giles era at Rovers through the links below.

    About Macdara Ferris

    Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile